When U.S. Congressman Schuette of Michigan's 10th congressional district decided in 1990 to run for the U.S. Senate against incumbent U.S. Senator Carl Levin, Camp ran to replace him and won the endorsement of his former boss. In the Republican primary he faced former U.S. Congressman James Dunn and former State Senator Alan Cropsey. Despite trailing Dunn in early polls, Camp won the Republican primary with a plurality of 33%.[6] He defeated Cropsey (30%), Allen (19%), Dunn (18%), and Simcox (1%).[7] He won the general election with 65% of the vote.[8]

After redistricting, he decided to run in Michigan's 4th congressional district. He won the general election with 62% of the vote.[9] He never won re-election with less than 61% of the vote and never had a primary challenge.[10]

Camp served on the House Committee on Agriculture. For his work on behalf of Michigan agriculture, Camp received the Golden Plow Award in 1998, the American Farm Bureau Federation’s highest honor given to only one Member of the House in each Congress.

Camp was the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health, and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, respectively. He served seven terms as a Member of the Subcommittee on Human Resources, and six terms as a Member of the Subcommittee on Trade. As a junior Member of the committee in 1996, Camp played a role in the passage of welfare reform legislation, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act.

Camp served as Ranking Member of the full committee on ways and means. During his tenure as Ranking Member, Camp helped advance Republican alternatives to the 2009 stimulus law and 2010 health care law. The Camp alternative to the 2009 stimulus law would have cut taxes and provided incentives for small businesses to hire new employees. He also offered an alternative plan during the 2010 debate on health care reform.

Camp was one of three House Republicans appointed by then-Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) to serve on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, commonly known as the Bowles-Simpson Commission, formed in February 2010. It was charged with identifying policies to improve the U.S. fiscal situation in the medium term, and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long term. While on the Commission, Camp co-led the Tax Reform Working Group and was a member of the Mandatory Spending Working Group.

Camp was involved in the House Republicans’ January 2011 repeal efforts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. While the Senate has not taken action on full repeal of the Democrats’ 2010 health care law, Camp lead the repeal of the health care law’s 1099 tax reporting requirement, which some small businesses said would hurt their operations and ability to employ workers.

"I'm a conservative on fiscal policy, but I'm a moderate on some other issues," he told Congressional Quarterly in 2006. He told National Review in 2007 that he feels "more at home" with the conservative Republican Steering Committee. Camp is part of the moderate bloc through his participation in the Main Street Partnership. He generally voted along party lines in the House, siding with Republicans 93.7 percent of the time during the 111th Congress.[14] The American Conservative Union gave him a lifetime rating of 89 percent, his score with the Club for Growth is considerably lower. Camp voted for both the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Camp opposes abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He voted twice for President George W. Bush's tax cuts, and supports their full extension. He pushed for private accounts for Social Security and he supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Camp supported the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he backed President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq in 2007 with some reservations. In August 2013 Camp announced that he supports reforming welfare again. He believes that many safety net programs do not have enough requirements attached to them for people to receive benefits.[15] He introduced the Tax Reform Act of 2014 on February 26, 2014.[16] The congressional nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation calculated the bill would allow 95 percent of filers to get the lowest tax rate possible by claiming the standard deduction,[17] would create up to 1.8 million jobs and increase gross domestic product by up to 1.4% in 2023.[18]